Best flea/tic stuff for dogs?

The fleas and ticks are ridiculous this year! I guess a combination of the warm winter and no longer having the chickens free ranging... the poor dogs are covered. I tried a cheap, but still name brand flea and tick collar but it's not doing much if anything. My parents use those expensive collars (Seresto) and said they work well, but they have two small dogs... mine are bigger, one is 21 lbs the other 50 lbs (not huge, but definitely larger than their Yorkie and Lhasa) so I don't know if they would be as effective? I know the Frontline brand has lost it's effectiveness. Not sure what other good options there are? The pills weird me out a little bit - are they truly safe? It seems like topical would be safer, right? I should probably do the cat as well, although he doesn't seem to be as bad for some reason. The smaller dog is a part time indoor dog (mainly in the evenings she will come in after supper and conk out in her bed). I thought she had dirt on her, then the particles moved :x . I realized then just how bad they were...

I never could use Frontline, allergic myself lol. I use Advantage, well now its Advantage II. I do this for all the dogs AND cats. I buy the 55+ 4pk off of Ebay for $35.00 or so and split it up. Does well and I've never had an issue so far with it being not effective (granting I use the correct measured out amount, initially I was a bit gun shy of using it and using less than the needed dose on new ones to see about reaction tolerances, well it gets rid of *most* of the fleas but leaves some stranglers if not used at dose needed). There are lots of sites and reviews on using it this way.

IF you decide to do some thing that way, it cannot be Advantix, it has a different ingredient added that makes it deadly to cats.

I groom dogs all day long, so I ditto the advantage, and if it doesn't work for you go to just Nexgard chewables. I got a three month bravecto chewable for my pom, who is allergic to everything, and it did keep them off her for three months and no problems. The fleas around central Indiana just laugh at frontline anymore.

Don't use collars. They spread toxin everywhere and do not work except around the animals neck. Best treatment I say is revolution but cost is higher and it's still prescription. On the plus side it takes care of heartworm and several other parasites inside and out compared to others and treats ticks with the basic formula. Slightly cheaper I'd go with frontline or regular advantage. I wouldn't touch advantix with a 10' pole. The added ingredients in it, moxidectin, has killed animals including mini ponies from how narrow the dosage range is. There are some less common brands of topical or pill and some are safe while others have been known for their side effects so you'd have to research the ones available to you. If you want to go really cheap you can find some all natural or fairly nontoxic sprays to use on animals and environment but it will take a lot longer to see results than one of the topicals. Not long term you can get comfortis from a vet that will kill all fleas very fast for 24hrs. Fleas and ticks will just fall off dead from infested pets as you watch. It does only work for a day though so it's not really a good option of re-infestation from fleas in the house or yard is likely.

Do you mean capstar? I think comfortis is a monthly. I can't use that on 3 of mine, as they have to bite your dog to kill the flea, and they are flea allergic so it doesn't help them much.

Advantage is imidacloprid. Imidacloprid works fairly well on fleas but not very effective on ticks. Advantage II is imidacloprid with an added ingredient for ticks.

You can buy imidacloprid in a large jug for plants and use it on dogs, cats, and even rabbits (I wouldn't eat them afterwards though). It is significantly cheaper than the pet stuff. Just make sure it has ONLY imidacloprid and no other active ingredients. I've done this for several years and it is effective against fleas. Because of the lower concentration of active ingredients you have to apply more than you do of the pet stuff. The problem with any of these types of meds is the fleas will eventually develop an immunity.

Imidacloprid is highly tolerated in mammals and it takes alot to make it toxic.

I use 1.47% imidacloprid plant insecticide at the following dosages applied along the back

cats 1-9lbs 2.5ml
cats > 10lbs 5ml

dogs 21-55lbs 15.5ml
55-80lbs 25ml
>80lbs 30ml

I actually use a bit more than 30ml for my dog that weights 110lbs.

I recently found out that ivermectin can be used to treat ticks (who knew right). It actually makes sense as they are related to mites, I'd just never thought of it.
http://www.veterinaryworld.org/Vol.3/Ma ... 20dogs.pdf

The pdf has the dosage for the ivomec pour on to use on dogs for ticks.

Wondercide http://www.wondercide.com/?utm_source=g ... oCV2zw_wcB

Its the best thing we have discovered in years!

It kills on contact and can be sprayed every day. It can be put on people to repel ticks, gnats and mosquiteos, it kills bedbugs, head lice and flies (and every other thing I have hit with it) leaves no poisonous residue and is gentle enough to use on rabbit kits.

Oh, and it smells good too.

When I spray the dogs I run the flea comb through the wet fur to push any fleas into the spray, it has to touch the flea to kill the flea.

GBov":17fnuxvp said:

Wondercide http://www.wondercide.com/?utm_source=g ... oCV2zw_wcB

Its the best thing we have discovered in years!

It kills on contact and can be sprayed every day. It can be put on people to repel ticks, gnats and mosquiteos, it kills bedbugs, head lice and flies (and every other thing I have hit with it) leaves no poisonous residue and is gentle enough to use on rabbit kits.

Oh, and it smells good too.

When I spray the dogs I run the flea comb through the wet fur to push any fleas into the spray, it has to touch the flea to kill the flea.

Click to expand...

Interesting! I will look into it! How does it work indoors? Our tenant has a horrendous flea infestation right now... she is going out of town for a month so I was going to see what I could get figured out for the house...

I find that also washing the dog with either Dawn or Ajax dish soap the day before treating with the OTC flea/tick up-the-spine liquid helps. And with all the nasty stuff my dog found to roll in, the aroma from the dish soap was better